Make Corporate Tax Dodgers Pay a Price

by Deacon Blues

As Paul Krugman notes this morning, corporations seemingly want all of the benefits of being individuals, including free speech translated as buying elections, and freedom of religion so they can discriminate against their employees. But when it comes to taxes, corporations refuse to act as individual citizens and instead reserve to themselves the right to scam the US treasury through tax avoidance schemes like the current move by Walgreens, which wants to call itself Swiss so they can dodge billions in legally-owed taxes.

This same company has made billions from the Medicare Part D program, and with those profits now taken from the taxpayers, Walgreens wants to reward their home country with a fraudulent argument that US taxes and regulations are causing this, when in fact what's prompting Walgreens' actions are nothing more than good old fashioned corporate greed.

If the federal government wanted to send a message to companies like Walgreens, they'd tell Corporate America that any company that reincorporates itself overseas for tax dodges like this cannot participate in government programs. And Democrats would be fools to ignore this issue in the fall.